Widow No More
by Katnibellamione
Summary: I wanted to expand a little more on Mrs. Everdeen's relationship that I alluded to in the Book of Annie. I like the idea that she would marry again after the war. She's still young, only 42. Anyway, I wrote this very quickly, maintaining true to some Book of Annie scenes. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: Refugee Meets McDreamy

**Chapter 1: Refugee Meets McDreamy**

I wander through the dirt streets of District 4. When I got on the train at District 12, I promised myself that I would only go as far as what little money I had would take me. I guess this is my stop.

I can hear strange birds cawing to each other. The crash of the beach as I walk along the shore. How strange. I have never seen the ocean before. And yet, it is one of the only landmarks still here. The only other one I can see is the Victors' Village - or what used to be the district's Victors' Village - standing on a hill. It once used to stand, proud and silent. But it isn't anymore.

District 4 looks further in disarray than even District 12 did. There are not many buildings still standing, and few that are have yet to re-open, it appears. Some surviving structures still look abandoned. Not even the Justice Building made it. Which makes me wonder just who is in charge here? Of this district? So, since the Victors' Village is one of the few institutions left standing, I decide to lug my suitcase there.

The place looks like a ghost town. I hear that District 4 produced six Victors, so it must have been, at one time, much busier than the Village in 12 ever was. But even the houses that look like they have been lived in seem abandoned now. Fallen to neglect.

Except one. There are lights on in only one house. So I shoulder my things, bravely approach the front stoop and knock.

The woman who answers the door is very pretty. She has striking red hair and deep green eyes, and she carries a baby in one arm. I seem to recognize her... she was originally Reaped to go in with Katniss for the Third Quarter Quell, but that old woman took her place.

And from the way this girl peers at me, it is clear she must think that I am familiar, too... Though I can't imagine how.

"You're Katniss Everdeen's mother, aren't you?"

Oh, right. As the mother of the Mockingjay and hero of the Rebellion, I suppose I would have gotten some publicity. I shrug. "And a refugee like most others. I need to start my life anew, and a change of scene might be the best way to do that." I don't mention how, having lost one child, I can't seem to look my other one in the face. But Peeta will take care of Katniss. And so will Haymitch Abernathy.

Annie doesn't ask questions, except to confirm that I was a Healer in my district. Thrown by the question, I blink. "Yes..."

"Come with me!" And she takes me right to the probably the one other building in all of District 4 still in operation: the hospital.

The facility is still treating some of the last patents injured in the war. There is much work to be done.

"Dr. Lambert!" Annie calls to a man who seems to be about my age, maybe a little older. And I'm only 42! "It's Katniss Everdeen's mother! She can help! She's a Healer!"

Oddly, I find myself flushing. Dr. Lambert is very handsome, in a rugged kind of way. Pepper-gray hair, stocky build. And eyes as green as Annie's. He beams when he sees me. He asks me a few questions about my skills. I don't realize that I just went through an interview until he hires me on the spot.


	2. Chapter 2: Right-Hand Woman

**Chapter 2: Right-Hand Woman**

I have been in District 4 for nearly a year now. Already, I have risen through the ranks at the hospital, becoming second-in-command to Andrew. That's Dr. Lambert. Even though we are colleagues, we have come to talk almost like old friends. There are some things you cannot do without liking each other, and keeping people alive is one of them. I suppose such bonds of friendship could be forged in a fight to the death, like my eldest girl went through, but Katniss has always conducted herself differently from me. A lot like her father, in fact. Although, I have no idea where she got her sometimes cold and distant attitude. Certainly not from Estes, my late husband. And I hope she didn't get it from me.

Another fisherman has been brought in again. Harpoon through his leg. As we leave the war behind and begin to pursue normalcy, fishing accidents are pretty standard fare these days. "Hold him down, please!" I order my doctors. I fill the syringe with morphling without flinching and administer it. It will dull the pain... enough to yank the harpoon out of the fisherman's leg. I then apply a coat of paste to cool the burning that will surely come. This man will have to stay here for at least overnight. Seal up the hole in his leg from the wound to stop the bleeding, and then we're done!

Dr. Lambert - Andrew, I should say - nods in approval from where he is watching. "You have more skills than most of my staff here!" I blush at his praise. "Where did you learn?"

I shrug. "I was an apothecary's daughter for many years. When I married my husband... my family disowned me. Class issues, you know."

Andrew looks dismayed. "I wouldn't know. Class lines have never seemed to be a problem here in Four."

I move on. "So I opened my own Healing practice, because Estes wasn't making nearly enough money for two small children." Mentioning my baby girls makes my eyes prick with tears. Andrew lays a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"We have all heard of Primrose's bravery. I am so sorry."

I like how she says her full name. Primrose. I never did like Prim as a nickname, though I rolled with it because Katniss didn't seem to mind. Still... "Primrose was supposed to be my successor. My eldest girl..." I find myself chuckling. "She could never stay composed at the sight of blood. And she won the Hunger Games, for heaven's sake!"

Andrew laughs. "Katniss has her own skills and strengths, I'm sure."

I blink, struck by his compliment. That's so nice... "Yes. She does."


	3. Chapter 3: Taking the Leap

**Chapter 3: Taking the Leap**

I am heading down the hall one day in my Healer's uniform. I find the required dress code largely ridiculous, as I didn't impose such rules on myself back in 12. But Andrew insists on his staff looking and acting their best, so for him, I would do that.

All at once, Andrew appears. He looks panicked.

"What's wrong?" I ask. "Is it a patient...? Andrew!"

But Andrew is dragging me into a storage closet and closing the door. "Andrew? What's the matter?"

"I need to ask you something!" he gets out. His voice is breathy, almost choked, as if it is a struggle to get the words out. He looks very nervous. I've never seen Andrew this nervous.

I laugh nervously myself. "OK..." I grin.

"Would you like to go to dinner with me sometime... Lillian?" He asks. His eyes are searching, waiting for me to say No.

But I stare at him, smiling bemusedly. "I think you just asked me out on a date," I observe.

"It doesn't have to be that!" Andrew says quickly, as if I might be offended by the word.

"No, I think it's fine," I laugh. "Sure. Let's do that."

Andrew looks elated. Then, suddenly, he pulls me closer and kisses me. Right on the mouth.

I stiffen in his embrace for only a moment. I have never kissed another man besides my first husband. But Andrew's lips are soft and warm. And they are not insistent. He seems to be leaving this up to me, getting ready to pull away should I feel displeased at his boldness.

But I'm not. And I don't let him pull away. I kiss him back instead.

I drape my arms around his neck and close my eyes in pleasure. Encouraged, Andrew's hands wander, up under my uniform, until he is touching very sensitive areas. I let him hoist me up onto a stack of boxes and allow him to feel me up as I divest myself of my uniform. I hate the thing anyway!

Once upon a time, Estes dragged me out to the smokehouse behind our home. It was the middle of winter. He had me there. Thinking back on it, I am convinced that was the counter in which we conceived Primrose. Only who should appear but our little girl, Katniss, just three years old. Seeing something a baby her age was not meant to see, she began to cry. She thought Daddy was hurting Mommy. I gently explained to her that Daddy was doing what he was doing to me because he loved me. She would understand when she was older.

So now, as I kiss this other man and begin to have sex with him, as I let him fill my most feminine of places, I am so glad that my one surviving daughter is far, far away in District 12, unable to see how naughty her mother is being...

"Uh... UH! Yes, Andrew! Harder... faster..." His thrusts increase in speed as he complies. I am now stark naked, my blouse having slipped down past my cleavage.

Just then, the door bangs open. I don't see my daughter, but I do see a young woman who has become like a daughter to me. And her mouth is now open in utter shock. I pull Andrew close in an attempt to cover myself, but he doesn't appear to have seen the intruder.

"Oh, Annie! What's... what's wrong, love?"

She shifts awkwardly from foot to foot. "There's a patient who needs a morphling dose. But I cab get it if you're... busy..."

This doesn't appear to concern Andrew, as he takes one of my breasts into his mouth, forcing me to arch into him. "I'll be right there, dear!" I gasp.

* * *

After-hours, Andrew and I spend a lot more time together. Annie graciously allowed me a house in Victors' Village - one of the empty ones, as the homes that used to hold her fellow Victors are now museums. From there, I can see the ocean, and it's not a far walk down to the shore, either. Here, Andrew and I spend our evenings, walking along the beach and talking. They are good dates, better than a fancy dinner. I have never been used to having such plenty and food before, as for years, I was as poor as a church mouse. But I had Estes, and then my girls, so it didn't matter so much to me.

The fisherman are long gone for fishing season, so I am shocked when Andrew suddenly kneels in the sand as one of them would before leaving on a long voyage. Those kind of requests usually occur just before fishing season, but I have only ever had one request like this before. Well, actually two requests, and they were both back in District 12. I can't think of the first one without feeling sad... and thinking of Peeta, that poor boy now all alone...

So for the third time I find myself breathing "Oh my God!" as Andrew asks:

"Will you marry me, Lillian?"


	4. Chapter 4: The Wedding and the Baptism

**Chapter 4: The Wedding and the Baptism**

It is sunset on a beautiful summer's evening. Andrew brings his face very close to mine. Hesitant at first, I reach up to him and meet him halfway in a passionate kiss. Slowly, as Andrew's tongue slips in between the opening split, my mouth curve into a smile against his. A new life. A new promise.

Instantly, Andrew picks me, his new wife, up and begins to carry me towards a flat-bottomed boat, as fisherman cheer and begin to sing the traditional wedding song: _"I tell ya of young men in black-and-white coats, and it's say, to the port side, heave ho. You'll cart your bride off in a flat-bottomed boat to mysterious fathoms below."_

I laugh, and manages to wriggle out of my second husband's kiss, before dunking him in the water. That's the other wedding tradition that most people in District 4 don't talk about. Like it is tradition for the bride to be carried away to a flat-bottomed boat, so too is it tradition for the groom to get dunked.

"Wait, there's one more thing!" I cry and I turn to Annie. "Annie, fetch me a piece of bread from my kitchen, would you?"

She returns a moment later to see that I have actually started a fire, using driftwood from the beach. I toast the bread she gives me, and then I prompt my new husband to share it with me, before pulling him to me and kissing him soundly.

" _Now_ , we're married," she tells him. "No one from Twelve feels really married until after a toasting." The people of Four are intrigued. But I am a woman from District 12 at heart. I have to maintain that tradition

"Shall I call Katniss and Peeta with the great news?" Annie asks.

"Better make it a letter. And no, don't mention to my daughter that I have gotten married. But you can still write them," I advise.

* * *

Andrew moves in with me in the home in Victors' Village after our honeymoon. It is a nice place to be and good to give Annie and her small son, Finn, some neighbors. Our house also serves as an effective place to bring patients after-hours, in the event of an emergency.

Today is the day of Finnick Odair Jr.'s baptism and my daughter and Peeta have been chosen as the godparents. My husband and Annie and the baby and I are standing at the District 4 train station, to greet the engine from Twelve.

They are all here. Katniss, with Peeta and Haymitch in tow. I give my surviving daughter from my first marriage an awkward hug, and we waltz down through town and to the beach. The baptism will take place in the ocean, as is District 4 tradition.

Introductions are at last in order. I watch nervously as Andrew introduces himself to Katniss. "I'm Dr. Andrew Lambert. You must be Katniss. I've heard so much about you."

Katniss frowns, confused, so I bravely clarify by referring to Andrew as "My new husband."

Katniss now stares between us in bewilderment and deep mistrust. Also... hurt. Of not being told of the wedding. Anger. She actually glowers at Andrew. Refuses to shake his hand. There is a painful silence.

"More brandy?" Haymitch suddenly bellows. I didn't think he was that drunk as he thrusts himself into the space where my husband and daughter are conspicuously not shaking hands and sticking his liquor bottle almost right up Andrew's nose. Then he rounds on Katniss, sounding more like her father than Estes ever did. "And, Sweetheart, I think it's high time you go somewhere private to change. You are _not_ baptizing your godson looking like you just went on one of your hunts! You should have changed on the train!"

Katniss sends him a look that could split stone before turning on her heel and flouncing up to Annie's mansion. Finn coos and squirms in Annie's arms, trying to reach his godmommy, whom he must think is very pretty. Annie and Peeta dither after Katniss, talking in low whispers.

"That Haymitch is... quite a character," Andrew marvels after Haymitch stumbles a distance away.

I smile wanly. "You'll never be bored, Andrew. But that man is smarter than he looks. He can do brilliant feats even when he is drunk. He saved Katniss's life."

When Katniss returns in a beautiful blue dress that matches the tide, she exchanges fiery words with Haymitch. "Why did you call me out in front of my mother?"

"Why are you being such a bitch?" Haymitch volleys back in almost a dead-pan. I see Peeta try not to laugh.

"Who gets married again and then doesn't tell her daughter? Is that something someone hides?" Katniss demands. "I want to know!"

"All right; that's enough! Both of you!" Peeta breaks it up. "We should all be very happy for Mrs... Everdeen's, I mean Lillian's... new marriage."

Katniss places a hand on his chest and actually kisses him. Her eyes are full of something I never thought I'd see in her: love. "Always the peacemaker," she actually smiles appreciatively.

Katniss is a little nervous and emotional when she is tasked with holding Finn. But she kneels in the tide and allows the priest to baptize the baby. Then, she and Peeta stand with their godson on the shore. Katniss actually covers Finn with kisses, as Peeta embraces them both.

"I've tried to tell her she'd be a good mother, but she won't listen to me. And she won't listen to the boy," Haymitch slurs from where he stands next to me.

He's actually right, as I suddenly gasp and become teary at the sight of what could easily be a family. Katniss would be a great mother. Better than I ever was to her.


End file.
